Pathfinder Kingmaker - Cursed Contagion

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The arrival of crazed beasts from portals at a cursed hill has citizens worried so new regent Lander invites delegations for a hunt! This all goes well until one of the attendants suddenly explodes into an owl bear? Upon investigation Jhod and Tristian discover this is due to portal seeds being ingested from the river and Kesten leads the investigation to a cult comprised mainly of stupid goblins intentionally spreading the contagion (because absolutely no one boils water before drinking it in fantasy realms).

Stupid contagion spreading goblins come in many forms.

His inside man goblin Nok-Nok reveals that the seeds come from high in the mountains (not the cursed hill) and are travelling down the river to the capital! They quickly rush to its defense as many citizens explode into horrible creatures that need slaying. One particularly large owlbear crushes Nok-Nok underfoot before order is restored.

While this happens Baron Siegfried leads his team to the source discovering it to be two giant plants, one blooming in a cave and the other blooming the world of fairies. To defeat it they must torch both at the same time so Siegfried, Octavia and Bouquet fight the fairy version while Valerie, Ekun and his wolf take the cave version. Alas Octavia is eaten by the fairy version of the plant but there is no time to save her as the cave team set their version on fire. The baron does the same and burns the horrible flora (and Octavia) to ash. He will never forget her screams.

With the threat ended there is some time to regroup and rebuild, until lady Jamandi Aldori tasks the baron with finding out what has happened to the neighboring land of Varnhold... whose citizens all seem to have gone missing.

Pathfinder Kingmaker - Trolling the Baron

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The troll threat is interesting in two ways: firstly they are allied with kobolds and secondly unlike regular trolls these ones seem to be fire resistant! An arrogant gnome alchemist Jubilost who is saved from one of their raiding parties suggests this ability comes from some sort of magical brand which is probably of dwarven make so the team immediately hunts down any dwarven ruins in the area and sure enough find their stronghold "kingdom" in the Southern end of the forest. Troll hating foreign ranger Ekun is also met here and joins the team for the purge. Like most fantasy games rangers get stronger through racism!

It takes awhile before the king kobold and troll queen are discovered at the branding forge (because of bad camera angles, if you get stuck here go to the largest room to the North West in the downstairs section and follow the wall left) and the pair prove to be a difficult fight with Regongar being pulverized by the troll queen's club before Seigfried can defeat it and Octavia counter spells the king kobold. The few remaining kobolds and trolls scatter back to the forest, ending this threat and on the way back to the capital (which was previously the Stag Lord's fortress) the team save a lizardman village from a possessed kid and help an alien spider return home.

I wonder if it can tell the time?

Bad news awaits upon arrival though - Jaethal went and killed some elves she thought murdered her previously, Tristian is spotted colluding with anti-Seigfried cultists, Valerie got into a duel with one of her exes and lost, suffering a terrible scar on her face, and Linzi was caught pilfering the treasury to try fund her dream printing press. Since she now has the face of a loser, Valerie is stripped from her regent position which goes to Lander and Linzi is giving a stern talking to (because there was no option to execute her - weak designers) with Siegfried promising that due to her actions there will NEVER be ANY printing press ANYWHERE ON HIS LAND. FOREVER.

No action is taken against Tristian who has earned the benefit of the doubt through excellent work ethic and Jaethal whom Siegfried is crushing hard on. On the plus side Jubilost's keen intellect makes him an excellent treasurer, easily replacing Shelumu from that position.

Pathfinder Kingmaker - Lord of the Stolen Lands

[Part of the Cursed story line]

It soon becomes clear that bandits aren't the only problem in the stolen lands as Siegfried's team also defeats foreign slavers and mad fauna, saving (and recruiting) the enslaved couple Octavia (a better trap disarmer than Linzi) and Regongar from the first and cleric pair Jhod Kavken and Tristian from the second. Using diplomacy, Siegfried also gets a small group of the Stag Lord's own disgruntled people to turn on him. Not only do they reveal the location of his fort, they actively assist in getting the entire team within the walls. Apparently no one's challenged the Stag Lord in so long that his security has become very lax!

Look out, the drunk is going to shoot his sword at us!

Unable to talk him into surrendering, a big fight breaks out which results in Harrim being mauled to death by the Stag Lord's per owlbear and Siegfried slaying the Stag Lord. All the enemy bandits are killed as are all but one of the friendly bandits. Siegfried recruits the sole  survivor, a halfling ranger named Bouquet.

With the task complete the team returns for a celebratory feast at Jamandi Aldori's mansion where she keeps her word and installs Siegfried as the new baron of the Stolen Lands. She also tries convince him to take her adopted son as his emissary but Siegfried picks young Lander  instead, who seems the only independent choice available.

And so comes the arduous task of actually governing the realm with advisors Jhod as high priest, Tristian as councilor, Valerie as regent, Shelumu as treasurer, and Amiri as general. While Siegfried non-user friendly town construction interface, Jhod goes off to rebuild a temple, Valerie deals with a vanity cult, Shelumu starts losing the realms money and while Tristian is amazing at any task set before him, General Amiri is a widespread failure. She fails to catch left over bandits (twice), fails to train guards, and fails to build a simple wall. Sheesh.

Siegfried almost jumps for joy at the news of an amassing troll army in the woods since it means he can take a break from doing all that boring stuff!